Slashdot Mirror
State of the 360
IGN is reporting on The State of the Xbox 360, detailing information on the next-gen console since this past E3. From the article: "Coming into the home stretch here, it's clear Microsoft has had its fair share of problems. The MTV event, though brilliantly conceived, was a hype-without-substance infomercial that impressed nobody, especially the most important people -- gamers. At the actual MTV event, I did an informal poll which revealed that three-fourths of the people attending were there only to see the Killers. E3 was underwhelming to put it mildly, and the summer months proved to be vacant of everything but rumors, leaks, and more rumors and leaks. The Tokyo Game show helped Microsoft's cause a little, and Microsoft finally revealed its Japanese pricing and the worldwide release dates, leaving one major news announcement left open - the day-and-date launch games. Apparently, Microsoft and friends are still working on these last details."
...seeing how the MTV audience usually devours everything that is spoon-fed to them.
People are falling less and less for the hype, and that's a good thing - besides asthetical differences, there's nothing really different with the current-gen console systems and the one that's soon to be unveiled to us. IMHO, Nintendo is the only one coming with something remotely interesting.
I agree that Microsoft seems to be rushing. They are trying to go from being the one with the last console out to the first; however, the four year separation is similar to the minimal time period between unsuccessful Sega systems. There is a wide range of launch titles which should help, but it is looking like the PS3 will have better games at its launch. It's still to early to see if the PS3 dev kit will be too complicated at first, but at the same time Microsoft rushed out its own developement kits which cannot help. My biggest concern is Microsoft sticking with DVD9 for the 360. Whether HD-DVD or blu-ray whens the blue laser battle won't matter because the 360 can play neither. One is going to win and people are gonna demand the 360 to be formatted with the winning version. Thus, buying an XBOX at launch would be ridiculous unless you could afford to buy a second when the upgraded 360 comes out.
First, I said, "Let there be PS2," and there was PS2, and PS2 was good.
I hadn't owned a console system since my old NES, and I was blown away by the graphics, sound, and playability of the latest generation of games. I bought Tekken. I bought Madden. I bought Ridge Racer. I bought SSX.
Then, I said, "Let there be Xbox," and there was Xbox, and Xbox was good.
Several of my friends passed up the PS2 in favor of the Xbox, and I ended up buying on purely out of peer pressure. I hosted a few cookouts where they brought their Xboxes, hooked them up to my spare tv's, and we kicked each other's asses on Halo. I bought DOA Volleyball, and said, "Wow, a really unique and original game. (Oh, and by the way, Hitomi is a goddess...)"
Then, I said, "Let there be Gamecube," and my wallet reached up and punched me in the eye, so I had to pass up that system. :-(
I bought a few more games for each of the systems I had, and slowly came to the realization that the impossible had happened—I was bored with them. I bought Generic Fighting Game #362, Generic First Person Shooter #178#, Generic Role Playing Game #204, Generic Racing Game #140, and a bunch of others. (I've got to admit, Generic Stealth Mission Game #78 was not half bad...)
At this point, I am thinking that I will forego the Xbox 360 and the PS3 in favor of the Revolution. Why? Because what I need now aren't better graphics and sound. I've been there and done that, and it's no longer enough. What I need are new and original games, games that leave me saying, "Wow, that's pretty cool, the first of a new generation of Generic Games that will inevitably follow on the other systems. But until now, I haven't been there, and I haven't done that!" All indications I've seen so far from Microsoft and Sony point to just a bunch more Generic Games.
I may be mistaken, but Nintendo seems to be the only company right now thinking outside of the proverbial box. When I first saw the controller, I thought, "Are you kidding me? How can you play a decent game with a remote control?" The more I think about it, though, the more I think that it's probably not a bad idea after all. And more importantly, I respect Nintendo's willingness to say, "We know you haven't seen anything like this before, and that's what we're going to sell you: something different, and really, it won't suck!"
Next time I buy, that's exactly what I'm going to look for. If you're looking for prettier pictures, buy your Xbox 360 or PS3 and have fun. As for me, I'm going to wait until something more interesting comes along before I plop out hundreds of dollars.
Microsoft marketing have forgotten the windows ce Dreamcast.
The reasons Dreamcast failed was:
* PS2 came with DVD-player, Dreamcast didn't (just like PS3 will come with BluRay and XBox360 won't)
* Dreamcast used a cheap-to-develop but expensive-to-manufacture off-the-shelf desing (just like XBox1 & XBox360) while the PS2 used a highly optimized design which is hard to develop but drives down the cost per unit
* Sega thought that Windows CE and it's APIs would make it sooo easy to port games and there would be a load of games (Oh, yet another XBox-analogy) but in real life PS2 had much more games
* Sega thought that backwards compatibility isn't important, PS2 is fully backwards compatible which is a bid advantage (Oh, again XBox360 is only compatible to "top-selling-games" whatever that is supposed to mean)
* And of course Sega had bad timing: They launched only a short time before PS2 and the PS2-hype caused many potential buyers to wait for both consoles and decide then - of course at that time the Dreamcast was already old and PS2 was brand-new. (Microsoft actually believed their own marketing lies and thinks that launching before the PS3 will help them.)
Of course Microsoft made some stupid mistakes on top of all this:
* Bill Gates said that there "may" be a HD-DVD version at a later time. Now a lot of buyers will wait for that version, so XBox360 sales will be even lower
* They pissed NVidia off so badly that NVidia didn't even bid for the XBox360 contract. ATI was the only contender and Microsoft had to accept their terms.
* They released Halo2 just 1 year before the XBox360 launch. Those who bought a XBox1 at christmas04 are very unlikely to get a XBox360 at christmas05.
* They gave away their only advantage: The only advantage the XBox1 really had compared to the PS2 was that it was newer and technically superior (at least in some areas). Anyway the PS2 was "old" and the XBox1 was "new and cool". With the PS3 being released *AFTER* the XBox360, XBox360 will be "old" and PS3 be "new and cool".
XBox360 looks like Dreamcast3 to me. They will continue to lose as much or even more money on it than with XBox1.
"First let me commend you on a well written, witty & very entertaining read. It is good to see that there are still people on the web that can produce a coherent & well argued thought."
Too bad you aren't one of them. You never clearly choose what your point in this whole....thing....is, and when you do say something the comes close to the possibility of being remotely interesting, your horrifying grammar detracts from it. Honestly, go back to the third grade.
Dreamcast failed for exactly one reason: How they previously treated developers in the Sega Genesis days.
Both Sega and Nintendo charged outrageous fees for cartridges. When PS1 came out with the CD as a format, Sony did not gouge developers, and thus all of the ill-will that the developers had pent up against Nintendo and Sega worked in Sony's favor.
Then, they burned developers with Sega 32x, then they burned them again with Sega Saturn. Any developers and publishers who supported those formats lost a small fortune. By the time Dreamcast devkits were being handed out, Sega still treated developers with the monopolistic arrogant attitude from the Genesis days, and the developers did not sign up for a third round of losses.
The only thing i normally hear people talking about is either live or gears of war. Being somewhat of a sony fanboy i can only hope that they will botch up the 360 release, giving sony an extra edge on there release.
That's just stupid!
No really, it's just really, really stupid.
Do you know who will win in the next gen consoles? I can tell you that now, and it's the same answer as for the current gen. The winners are the gamers that have all consoles and play the games on the console which they are best on or exclusive to.
Seriously, stop using you consumer choices as a basis for your self image. It will only end you up in therapy.
Your rhetoric displays a certain degree of ignorance in regards to current consoles.
There really are not that many differences between the Xbox or the PS2. The software catalogue is diverse, and contains many of same titles that can be found on either the PS2 or Gamecube. The hardware specification is generally regarded to be better than any other existing console, and the Xbox has the most comprehensive online service so far.
Sure, some of the most popular Xbox titles are FPS games, much loved by a certain amount of hardcore FPS zealots. But look at the PS2 - it's plethora of arcane Japanese RPG titles has very much the same level of trainspotter-type adherents.
Frowning upon a certain group of people because you do not like a certain genre of game says more about you, than any actual deficiency in the Xbox console. At the risk of spending far too much time responding to your rather banal trolling, I'd suggest that anyone who for some reason considers console ownership a partisan decision, please actually have a look at the machines and make a decision based on which machine has the games that you want to play rather than your perceived tribal affiliations.
"When you connect that Xbox 360 to your HD TV and Dolby 5.1-enabled stereo, you're going to find out just how sophisticated, deep, and fun the box itself is."
Of course if you preorder and buy the Core System SKU, you won't find out how sophisticated, deep, and fun the box is, because you didn't spend the extra hundred dollar Marketing Tax. Thanks IGN, you're so helpful.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
There really will only be one major factor in xbox's demise. The Blu-Ray. If MS had waited to get HD-DVD into thier box they might have had a fighting chance, without it they are going to go spiraling down hill. There are two major aspects to this speed, streaming is very slow on current-gen DVD's, streaming on te Blu-Ray is 4x-5x faster. For games like GTA that steam with is invaluable. The second is size. With current get dual layer you only get 7 gigs (2 gigs for MS use only). 7 gigs is not much for a "next-gen" game. At the studio I work at this is a huge concern, since we are streaming the world we only have available to us 4.5 gigs since swaping isn't possible, because it is too slow. Sharders are not the next-gen thing, with mulitple passes being taken for everything, with huge textures. The first couple of years will not make much of a diffrence. But when the majority of developers get used to using the new power, the xbox will lag behind and be lost. The whole "we will go HD later" is a joke as well. No publisher in thier right mind will rls on HD when they know the majority of xbox users have current gen DVD's. Thank fully Sony will not have this problem. Now if Sony would only decide to charge more and make a harddrive mandatory, ms would really be crying. And ofcource there will be a revolution sitting next to eveyones ps3.